The bell rings, my classroom door flies open, and Tony comes hurtling through. “Can we write today, Mrs. Bradley? Please, please tell me we’re gonna write today!” He glances at the white board, sees “writing” on the agenda, and throws his hands up in celebration. “Yes!” In 20 years of teaching, I have never seen students this eager to write. Sure, I have had success … Continue reading “Pleeeeze, can we write today?”
Although I have conveniently forgotten most of my student-teaching experiences (oh, the magnitude of what I did not know that I did not know), there is one critical piece of advice that I have tried to heed each year since: on the first day of school, do something that makes the students want to come back on the second day. Our students might be required … Continue reading Hook ’em on day-one
Sometimes you just gotta’ laugh… Pushing open my classroom door, I sighed at the mess that greeted me. After battling the flu for a week, I had finally returned to my classroom to face the music: as hard as I worked to establish a daily routine for my students and leave detailed lesson plans for my substitute, I knew I would be lucky if a … Continue reading OMG Mrs. B!
Today is the perfect day to take a drive down to San Francisco: the sky is blue, the air is crisp, and a tiny bit of snow (the first in 30 years) dusted the City this morning. But while my friends and colleagues rally today in San Francisco (and across the country) for our fellow workers in Wisconsin, I am at home, working. I would … Continue reading Rallying from the kitchen table
When I met my husband, he was teaching at a small, private school. On more than one occasion I joked that if he wanted to marry me, he had to get a job at a “real” school. There was nothing wrong with his school, but I just didn’t see private schools in our future. I had always assumed that my teacher/coach husband would join me … Continue reading I {heart} public schools!
My students were hard at work outlining the first essays for their self-published magazines. They were writing about cars, gymnastics, football, teen fashion, traveling, music, cooking, skateboarding and whatever else grabbed their fancy. This project would carry them through the rest of the semester, and because they get to choose the topics for their magazines, they usually enjoy the work. Writing is an art, and … Continue reading Will writing get me in trouble?
(with gratitude to and reverence for the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.) Ten years ago, President George W. Bush, in whose symbolic shadow our children now shiver, signed the No Child Left Behind legislation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of children who had been seared in the flames of educational injustice. It promised a joyous daybreak to … Continue reading I Have a Dream for Students and Schools
Laura Bradley 